Avaya Midmarket Solutions Aid Rapid Growth at Carlo’s Bakery

The popularity of TLC’s “Cake Boss” reality series drives the need for simplicity and power in core communication platforms at Carlo's Bakery. In this paper, learn how Avaya was able to provide a solution that could grow with the business.

1.
Avaya Midmarket Solutions
Aid Rapid Growth at Carlo’s
Bakery
Popularity of TLC’s “Cake Boss” Reality
Series Drives Need for Simplicity, Power in
Core Communication Platforms
New Jersey’s Carlo’s Bakery began as a small, family-owned
business in 1910. Acquired by the Valastro family in 1964, the
company has experienced rapid growth since the 2009 airing of
the TLC reality hit, “Cake Boss,” enjoying worldwide name
recognition today. Featuring Master Baker Bartolo “Buddy”
Valastro, Jr., along with Valastro family members and friends,
the show is broadcast in 208 countries and boasts over 2 billion
viewers worldwide.
Since 2009, a key focus on the part of the management team
has been supporting the growth of the business and Buddy’s TV
presence and appearances while minimizing complexity in day-
to-day operations.
avaya.com | 1
Challenges
• How to handle
rapid business
growth while
driving simplicity?
• Who to turn to for
trusted advice re:
business
communications
solutions?
Business Value
• A trusted
technology partner
with end-to-end
solutions covering
– Voice
– Contact
center with
Salesforce.com
integration
– Networking
– Wifi
– Mobility
– Geo-tracking
application

2.
In the last five years, Carlo’s Bakery
has grown from its single flagship
location in Hoboken to six stores and
an 80,000 square-foot factory in
Lackawanna, NJ. The number of
Carlo’s Bakery employees has
increased from 35 in 2009 to over
400, and Buddy now stars in two
additional TLC reality series.
Upgrading the business
communications infrastructure to
minimize complexity and drive
simplicity has been a key success
factor in Carlo’s Bakery growth
journey.
Rapid Growth
Part of the growth challenge was
maintaining Carlo’s Bakery’s high
standards for customer service.
Facing lines out the door, phones
ringing off the hook and a rapidly
growing online presence, the family
realized it needed to an entirely new
communications platform. For that,
they turned to Avaya.
“I always joke that our old call center
customer experience model was,
‘Carlo’s Bakery, please hold,’” laughs
Buddy Valastro. Avaya offered Carlo’s
Bakery an alternative to piecemeal
solutions. Avaya took Carlo’s Bakery
from six phone lines to a state-of-the-
art infrastructure to support critical
applications on a 24x7 basis, including
IP Office, Avaya’s flagship solution
for small and midmarket enterprises,
wireless LAN, and data network
solutions.
According to Leo Minervini, Carlo’s
Bakery CIO, “Avaya has provided us
with a comprehensive solution that
handles all of our business needs and
helps us to work together more
efficiently, collaborate more easily,
and ultimately reduce costs through
better communication.”
Seamless & Cost–
Effective
Carlo’s Bakery deployed an end-to-
end, high-speed Avaya network
throughout the organization. As new
stores are built, adding those
locations to the network and enabling
full communication capability is
seamless and cost effective.
Carlo’s Bakery is leveraging its Avaya
network to the fullest extent, using
the fast, reliable wi-fi to power
numerous applications, including the
company’s Apple iPad-based
inventory control management and
Point of Sale solutions.
“We have lines out the door almost
every day at every Carlo’s Bakery
location,” explains Minervini. “So we
deployed an iPad POS app that lets us
take orders and payment from
customers while they’re in line. We’re
able to offer better customer service
by leveraging the wi-fi capability we
have in place.”
The business plans to use the wi-fi
network to allow customers to order
cakes in-store and connect over video
with a designer at the Lackawanna
factory to discuss design details. The
goal is to make purchasing as simple
as possible for customers.
A New Era in Business
Communications
Avaya IP Office has been deployed at
all six of the Carlo’s Bakery locations,
supporting 98 communications end
points and providing a centralized
voicemail system. This midmarket
solution offers real-time collaboration
and unified communications features
for businesses, scaling up to 2,000
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“Avaya has provided us
with a comprehensive
solution that handles
all of our business
needs and helps us to
work together more
efficiently, collaborate
more easily, and
ultimately reduce costs
through better
communication.”
– Leo Minervini,
Carlo’s Bakery CIO

3.
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employees. Expansion capacity was
an important consideration for Carlo’s
Bakery. By the end of 2015, Carlo’s
Bakery expects to have 15 locations,
all of which will be integrated into the
IP Office platform seamlessly and
without the need for major upgrades
to the core Avaya infrastructure.
Avaya’s IP Office Contact Center is
enhancing employee productivity and
improving the customer experience.
The Carlo’s Bakery contact center
has an automated attendant with
40 channels at the main location,
fifteen call center agents and two
supervisors.
“Between the consultations, the
national shipping inquiries, and calls
about our baking classes, we receive a
phenomenal amount of phone calls,”
says Minervini. “The Contact Center
has made a world of difference. We’ve
significantly improved customer
service by reducing wait time and
more accurately routing the calls that
come in.”
IP Office Contact Center analytics
help to identify key call traffic
patterns, and flag peak calling times,
allowing Carlo’s Bakery IT to better
manage the number of people they
hire for the contact center, and staff
work hours more effectively. The
contact center also integrates with
Salesforce.com, giving agents all
relevant background on repeat
customers and vendors at the outset
of the call, improving the caller’s
experience.
On the Road
Appearances, speaking engagements,
and events keep Buddy on the road,
making mobility a top priority in the
Carlo’s Bakery communications
solution. The Avaya Flare®
Experience, an all-in-one, easy-to-use
collaboration application for iPads or
Windows devices, lets Carlo’s Bakery
employees use their tablets as their
primary communications devices, no
matter where they are. They can
connect over wi-fi and have access to
all of the applications they would have
on their desktops – phone calls, video
chats, IM, and even the Avaya geo-
presence application.
“Our delivery trucks were already
equipped with cell service to support
the use of Saleforce.com, so it only
made sense to piggy back on that and
deploy Avaya’s geo-presence
application,” says Minervini. “It allows
us to track and communicate with
every Carlo’s Bakery delivery truck in
real time, giving our dispatchers
greater control and visibility.”
Outside of the United States, Carlo’s
Bakery benefits from the Avaya Flare®
Experience by significantly reducing
roaming charges. For example, when
Buddy was recently in Europe, he was
able to connect via wi-fi to the Avaya
network and, using the Avaya Flare®
Experience on his iPad and iPhone
devices, communicate with the New
Jersey office without the need to
access the local cellular network.
“Buddy can be anywhere around the
globe on any given day,” says Adam
Bourcier, Carlo’s Bakery PR director.
“I’m on the road with Buddy all the
time, and I can tell you that the Avaya
Flare®
Experience lets us to do our
jobs from anywhere in the world.”
Increased Face Time
The next addition to the Carlo’s
Bakery’s Avaya network will be Avaya
Scopia®
XT Video Conferencing. This
full-featured HD video collaboration
solution will let Buddy meet face to
face with any employee at any of the
Carlo’s Bakery sites. It will also reduce
travel for Buddy because he can
replace some in-person meetings,
such as those with TLC executives,
with video meetings.
“Avaya has been with us
and supported us every
step of the way during
this period of dramatic
growth. There is
nothing but growth on
the horizon for Carlo’s
Bakery, and we couldn’t
ask for a better
collaboration partner.”
– Master Baker
Bartolo “Buddy” Valastro, Jr.,
Carlo’s Bakery